Would you trust a 'taxi' to Ezeiza you found on Mercado Libre for $100 pesos?

[mphillips_81]

I wouldn't trust it.

 

[Elpanada]

Personally I think that I would trust it.

What on earth is some radio taxi driver guy gonna do to you???

He isn't going to rob you since it is quite possible that you simply have nothing of great enough value to make it worth it for him to do so.

If the vehicle isn't roadworthy then that's going to create great problems for the driver since he'll be stuck somewhere out there on the road to Ezieza needing a tow back to a garage and since he won't have provided you with the services promised he won't be able to charge you a buck... you might arrive 20 minutes later then you had planned but the taxi driver will lose a bundle if he's dumb enough to come in a car that's not roadworthy.

Don't trust this... don't trust that... everyone is out to get you... give me a break.

Since the world is such a dangerous place and especially if you're some broke-ass foreigner in Buenos Aires looking for the cheapest possible deal on a cab fare to the airport then wouldn't it be best to simply call the Policia Federal Argentina and ask for a police escort to the airport??? Or no wait the Police in Argentina are underpaid and therefor corrupt so you can't trust them either... they might end up kidnapping you, asking for a propina, raping you or doing something else bad. You also have to consider the danger the world faces from terrorism, hijacking planes is the favorite hobby of terrorists and sitting in an airplane that's under the control of terrorists well that certainly doesn't sound safe. Hell even going to your local supermarket can be a dangerous thing you might get violently mugged as you exit your building or you could even end up buying something spoiled at the store that could give you serious health problems.

So what is the safest thing to do one might ask and there exists a simple answer. Make sure that the door to your apartment is safely locked, pull down the shutters, find a knife or some other weapon, close the door to your room, barricade it if possible, turn off the lights, draw your weapon and assume a defensive posture.

 

[TheBigDaddy]

Personally I think that I would trust it.

What on earth is some radio taxi driver guy gonna do to you???

He isn't going to rob you since it is quite possible that you simply have nothing of great enough value to make it worth it for him to do so.

What? lol how do you figure that? Someone on the way to the airport is going to have a load of valuable stuff, laptop, everything they are taking with them, probably a lot of cash.

It makes more sense to rob someone on the way to the airport than a person randomly on the street who may not have anything

 

[nikad]

If I was an expat or tourist here I would only take a radio taxi or Tienda Leon bus, unless you get a recommendation for a remise from someone you really know and trust. They all charge about the same, you will not be making great savings. I use ML for lots of different stuff, but only vendors that have several good ratings.

 

[Aleina Dee]

Guys,the service section in ML does not work the same as the sale section.As you can contract the service away from ML via the phone route or email ML does not give you this facility .

When I came here I contracted a guy via ML and not only was he reliable and trustworthy we have since become friends and do the "we invite you to dinner your turn next" routine.In other words , one can have positive experiences too...

I would say to the OP ,if you need to ask you should not do it. Everything including crossing a road is a risk but if you feel uncomfortable already it is a long ride to Ezeiza and if the driver for a completely legitimate reason has to make a detour you will be sweating it.

 

[Elpanada]

What? lol how do you figure that? Someone on the way to the airport is going to have a load of valuable stuff, laptop, everything they are taking with them, probably a lot of cash.

It makes more sense to rob someone on the way to the airport than a person randomly on the street who may not have anything

It is more probable than not that the passenger has a laptop but then again he might not and even if he does it might be an old laptop not worth more than 200-400 bucks. The passenger probably has money but again he might not, it might be one of those "All I need is a card" type of person and even if the passenger does have money then it could be as little as 200-300 bucks. What other valuable stuff might the passenger have??? Jewelry maybe maybe not... hell for all you know the god damn passenger won't have cash to pay you for your fare and may instead ask you to collect the cash from some relative of his in town or something of the sort as if your time was free and wasting half a day locating some person and collecting money for an underpaid ride was just no problem for you. Another thing is the market for stolen goods, you can't simply advertise them wherever and expect to get away with it, what you have to do is to sell them through other underground channels that sadly bring you a much lower price so even if the laptop that you get from this tourist is worth 400$ on the open market you won't be getting more than 200$ for it through your underground channels.

Now lets explore the process of robbing a passenger... do you drive off somewhere and assault or threaten the passenger yourself with a weapon or do you have someone waiting by the side of the road to help you with that aspect of the crime? If you're going to be Mr Doityourself then you are taking a very big risk since the passenger may opt to fight back and may even be armed with a knife or something of the sort. If you get someone to help you out then that person has to get his cut of the pie so the passenger better have something of value for you guys to rob. You'll both be taking a great risk since you could get hurt, you're putting time into the thing, the police might find you etc. In this case we're talking about a foreigner who places a call to order a car through a cellphone that has an advertisement on the internet. So while getting a disposable phonecard is pretty easy and cheap the phone on the other hand costs a whole lot more and it has a unique IMEI number that can be traced so once you've done the crime you have to throw the phone away too making this operation even more costly. You would also be taking a great risk arriving to the pickup with your license plates on so you'd have to first have to take the time out to steal license plates of another vehicle to put on your own since some friend saying goodbye or a neighbor might just take down the number on the license plate. Now lets examine the advertisement itself. You probably have to pay for it so you'd need a stolen credit card in order to put it up and then again it wouldn't be up for a long time... sorta stupid to even try and do that in the first place. It's also a bit of a process and a time consuming one at that to place an advertisement like that so if you're doing it just to rob one tourist on the way to the airport then well that would simply just be mad since you'd have to make a new advertisement every time and you'd have to make sure not to place them from your own computer since the IP number could get tracked down.

So now we have established how utterly stupid it would be to put an advertisement on the internet for taxi services and then to rob a passenger on the way to Ezieza.

Let's explore something else.

How easy would it be to make a buck from robbing a taxi driver that places an ad on the internet?

You can call the man on a payphone... no cost involved there or hassle really, just finding a payphone where there are no cameras around. You need two suitcases and a bag... you can fill them up with trash from the street really... man won't notice anything. You need to get the sucker to pull over... you need to take a leak and you're not about to do it on some tree... good enough and credible excuse. The taxi driver has at least 100 pesos on him or even far more. The car is also worth a bundle, the stereo, the tires. the bumper, the hood, the exhaust system, the engine, the batteries, the doors all of it is very valuable if you can sell it and especially the battery and the tires since they can go into other types of vehicles too. But surely the minimum amount that you can earn through this is far higher than what the driver could get from robbing you assuming that you only have like 200 bucks on you and a laptop that he'd only be able to get another 200 for. Also it would be much easier for you to rob the driver than for him to rob you since you wouldn't have to worry none about IMEI numbers, IP numbers, Credit card numbers, Phone numbers, placing advertisements online, acquiring stolen license plates or anything of that sort.

Lots of types of criminal activity can and do pay off but placing an ad for taxi services on the internet and then robbing some random passenger on his way to the airport could never be a lucrative business. The fact of the matter is that passengers pose a much greater risk to taxi drivers than vice versa.

 

[va2ba]

Elpanada, you are underestimating how far people will go to rob someone here. People create fake ML accounts all the time to rob someone. The police don't give a damn and they know it. Once someone steals your belongings, its gone, there is no getting it back and the thief knows he won't get caught.

There are a lot of people here who are desperate to make money...robbing a guy on the way to the airport would be pretty easy to do if you've got a car.

 

[mariposa]

the long and the short of it is, in a country where public safety is such an issue, you don't want to take chances with an unknown taxi driver or company (especially if the price seems too good to be true) just to save a few bucks! por favor !!!!!

 

[mulderfox]

ok i called that Baldini one and for peace of mind i organised it. they said around $130

Is it reliable? This other guy seems way keen to make a buck for his $100 pesos service.

i just read the add parking is not included so if he picks you up in ezeiza you`re to add 15 pesos at least, also ask if tolls are included

 

[TheBigDaddy]

Elpanada you must be a frustrated writer, you wrote half a book there and i dont have time to read it

If I were a criminal with access to a "taxi" i would much prefer to rob people this way than randomly waiting for someone on the street who may be carrying 20 pesos